Hello!
Orenda is a brand-new magazine created for people just like you:
it’s smart, young, modern, resourceful, all-inclusive, independant and kick-ass. It is
messy, imperfect, eclectic and probably swears more than it’s mother would like. It
features stories about real, everyday-but-extraordinary things and people that you will
find insightful, thought-provoking and interesting; as well as things to do that are fun,
guiding, practical and won’t cost an arm & a leg (but sometimes it’s fun to splurge).
It’s here for entertainment, aesthetics (whilst reconising that there is much, much more
to life) and to give you a bit of a helping hand in that wonderful time of your life where
you’re expected to know exactly what you’re doing but you just don’t.
Orenda is for you.
I hope you love reading it as much as I loved making it. With love,
Daisy xo

O R E N DA :

The invocation of the power of human will to change the world around us.
(from the Huron language)

Contributors
A BEAUTIFUL MESS

Is all about creating a beautiful
life. We share daily inspirations,
DIY projects and recipes.
We believe the best things in life
are homemade.
abeautifulmess.com

CAL BEHRENDT

is a Law/Journalism student who
spends most of his waking hours
watching TV or listening to music.
If not, he can be found playing
football or hockey.
He would link to a blog, but is too
lazy and cannot be bothered to
work on one.

KITE TALES

Brings you up to speed with
everything you probably don’t
need to know, providing you with
the perfect form of procrastination
among a fun and friendly
cyber-community.

UTS VERTIGO

Is the student magazine at the
University of Technology, Sydney.
utsvertigo.com.au

kitetalesblog.com

EMMA JERICHO

is an angry, queer selfie addict
who spends her time working,
drinking coffee and yelling about
things on the internet. You can
find a lot of that yelling, and a lot
of other stuff too on her blog.

SAM DOWNS

is a 17 year old night school
student studying to become
a certified pastry chef. She
models for various companies &
photographers and loves to travel.

smallworldsyndrome.tumblr.com
ORENDA

03

The world
as we have created it

is a process
of our thinking.
It

ca n n o t
be changed
without

changing
our thinking
04

ORENDA

Think

ORENDA

05

A PLACE TO CALL HOME
BEFORE I START THIS ARTICLE I JUST WANT
TO SAY that when I use the term “geek “or
“nerd”, in no way do I mean it in a derogatory
way at all. I am proud to be a self proclaimed
geek/nerd and I wouldn’t want to be anything
else.
One afternoon this week I sat down and watched
a show called Comic Con Episode: IV A fan’s
hope. It was a very interesting and relatable
show about a comic convention (a.k.a. a ‘con’)
in LA, from what I could gather. It followed the
work of 4 individuals as they pursued different
dreams, all leading them to comic con. Two
were artists, one was a costume designer and
the other owned a huge comic book store. In
between following these stories they spoke to
different people who are part of the geek/nerd
society, both the famous and the fans, about
comic cons in general, what they love about
comic cons, and just what cons means to them.
All of their answers were very similar, talking
about how they felt like it was home, and a
place they could completely be themselves and
express their passion and love for something
without being judged. And as a person who has
been to a few cons myself, I totally agree.
06

ORENDA

I have only been to three Comic Cons in the last
few years, and they were absolutely incredible.
I was lucky enough to attend my first one in LA,
Stan Lee’s Comikaze. It was there I experienced
for the first time the sense of community and
pride that comes with being a geek. It was like I
had died and gone to heaven, full of Star Wars,
the Walking Dead, sci-fi, art, comics, cosplayers,
and just everything amazingly geeky and
awesome. I also got to meet my idol, Norman
Reedus, which was incredible.
When I was living in Melbourne, I was new to
a big city, and being a country girl this was
difficult at times. It was there that I attended
my second con, Supanova. I felt so at home the
minute I walked through the doors. I remember
going with some friends, the trams were full of
cosplayers and people going to Supernova. We
ended up meeting up with a random bunch of
strangers and all putting money in for a taxi to
get there. Everyone was so nice! Every person
I have met at a con is always so friendly. The
artists I have come across always have time to
talk. I met a few there actually, one being a guy
named Frank, you can check out his awesome
work at http://j.mp/aptch, who even helped me
out by letting me know where different comic

functions were held in town and things like that!
So my point is that generally everyone you come
across at cons is just very friendly and wants to
share their passion with you. It just creates such
a positive energy, and you really feel as though
you can completely be yourself, dress how you
like, cosplay who you want, discuss whatever
games you want or fandoms you are a part of and
even go crazy fangirl over something (which I do,
my boyfriend has to listen to a lot of it with the
new Star Wars films at the moment haha) and no
one judges you! Because everyone else is doing
the same. It’s truly incredible. If you have not
been to one, I would highly recommend it. It’s
an amazing experience. I will put a list of cons
that I know of at the end of this article.

and makes it real. If only for theirselves.”
It was really insightful to read the answers from
some fellow geeks of what it means to them to
be a geek. What does it mean to you?
I will sum this article up by simply saying that
the ability to shamelessly express yourself
is one that is not always easy, and it has not
always been easy for me. Especially throughout
my teenage years, but by surrounding myself
with people who are passionate about the same
things that I am, I don’t have to hide anymore. I
am very lucky to have a boyfriend who shares
the same interests as me, and friends that do as
well. Going to my first con solidified who I was.

“It was there
I experienced for the first time
the sense of community and pride that comes from
being a geek.”
This got me thinking…what does it mean to be
a geek? I posted a Facebook status asking for
some help: “I ask anyone on here who is happy
to call themselves a nerd or a geek...What is it that
you like the most about it?”

For me it was a real moment of clarity, it’s where
I could say out loud “I am a geek, I love Star Wars,
and staying at home and playing video games
and watching movies is my Saturday night, and I
wouldn’t have it any other way.”

- “I love that I don’t have to be ashamed of loving
something to the point of obsession. I don’t have
to play it cool about how much I love something.”

Article by Layla Michallef (Kite Tales)

- “Life is about being happy! Do whatever makes
you HAPPY!”
- “Being a nerd lets you escape into your own
alternate world so you can escape the real one”
- “I know u asked for positives “what I like about
being a geek/nerd” all I can think of is the ridicule
and torment I faced growing up in the 80ies and
90ies when computers were not so kool. I still
stuck to my beliefs though, and was like “fuck
yeah ima nerd” even the other day I got called a
nerd in a derogatory way…so I guess I’m saying I
am a proud nerd who loves most things nerdy. It
takes courage to admit u r anything these days”
- “I think it takes one hell of a lot of pure passion to
be a nerd or geek. I am passionate about creating
life, love, friendships, entire living breathing
planets, landscapes and sprawling metropolises
inside the confines of my own head. But, on
occasion, I get to share my own little worlds with
others. I think being a ‘nerd’ or ‘geek’ boils down
to someone who has a burning passion for fiction

is death a big deal?
Article by Matilda Roberts (Kite Tales).
WHILE I WAS IN ENGLAND A FEW MONTHS
ago, I was viewing a stuffed panda on

display in the British Natural History
Museum in London. As I was peering into
the glass cabinet the panda was contained
in, a small girl around five years old stood
next to me and studied the panda also.
After a few moments of shared silence
the girl looked up to me and asked, in
the cutest little British accent, “Wots tha
pandars name?”, to which I answered her
question with the Panda’s name, which
was something along the lines of “Chi Chi”.
The little girl then asked, “Wots ‘E doin
in there?” and I told her, “Well Chi Chi is
actually dead so this is just his body that is
on display at the museum so everyone can
see him up close”.
My sister was standing close by and
immediately scolded me for what I said to
the girl: “Matilda, you can’t say that to her!
What is wrong with you?!”
In my defense the little girl was perfectly
fine with the news I had just told her.
However, her mother did gently swoop in
to redirect her daughter away from me
when our short conversation had ended.
08

ORENDA

I honestly still don’t think there was
anything wrong with being honest with
the child. I wasn’t going to lie to her and
make her believe the panda was still alive.
Which made me think… do we as a Western
culture act too weird about death/dead
bodies? When you think about it, a body
is merely just a shell of what we were.
In our society it’s not a normal thing to
see a dead body. People freak out about
it, which is totally fine and normal. But it
made me think maybe we should strive to
view death more like Eastern cultures and
societies. For example, in the Toraja district
of Indonesia’s South Sulawesi Province,
the deceased’s loved ones are dug up
every three years to have their clothes
replaced to honour their spirits. After this
the family then walks the corpses around
the village. It’s totally normal for them.
Please take note that I am not in any way
encouraging you to dig up your loved ones.
If we were to do that in Australia we’d
probably be charged with something and
be considered a weirdo. Any who, check
out the article at http:// j.mp/idabd, it has
some awesome photos in it but I wouldn’t
open it if you’re not into dead bodies like
me.

A B r i e f H i s to ry

Of

the cafe
Where else but the café can we
people-watch undetected, catch up
with friends, or become absorbed in
our latest reading project? Where
else can we sip strangely coloured
juices from recycled glass jars and
observe a local hipster at ease in its
natural habitat? The café is without
a doubt, the social and cultural hub
of the 21st century, but when and
where did it all begin? Courtenay
Turner (UTS Vertigo) looks at the
origins of the humble café.
BELIEVE IT OR NOT, CAFÉS - OR
COFFEE-HOUSES AS THEY WERE
ONCE KNOWN - date back to
14th century Turkey. The first
coffeehouse, Kiva Han, was
opened in the Tahtakale district,
where men and women would
go to drink aromatic cups of the
popular local brew, and engage
with the flourishing social scene.
Find that hard to imagine? Let me
paint a picture for you: the room is
dimly lit and smoke hangs in the
fair. In the far right corner, two men
are hunched over a game of chess,
neither of them moving except to
reach blindly for his scalding hot
cup. In another corner, an elderly
man is perched on a wooden
table, reciting poetry and songs
and stories to anyone who will
listen. Another group, the loudest
of them all, passionately discusses
literature and politics and the
music of the day.
It’s a romantic picture, isn’t it? And
not a whole lot has changed. Sure,
we’ve switched chess for Instagram
and perhaps given poetry the flick,
but I think we can agree that cafés
will always be a darn good site for
social lubrication.

Fast-forward to 1615: the magical
coffee bean has arrived on the
shores of Venice and is followed
by Italy’s first coffeehouse. France
was next to join in on the fun, easily
making a name for itself in global
café culture. Modern day tourist
attractions Les Deux Magots and
Café Le Procope were once the
favoured haunts of writers, poets,
socialites and intellectuals, such
as Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de
Beauvoir, and it’s easy to see why:
where coffee and soft, buttery
pastries are involved, there will be
people - and lots of ‘em!
By 1652, the humble café
had evolved from its modest
beginnings to conquer the
bustling streets of London. It was
there that men, and only men,
would pay a penny at the bar for
access to these sacred hubs of
social and cultural interaction.
News was spread, opinions were
given, gossip let loose. Without
Facebook, Twitter and the World
Wibe Web, our 17th Century
predecessors had to engage in
face-to-face conversations to
discover the word on the street!
Not only were cafés important
places of social interaction, they
also provided the means by which
information could be uncovered
and shared.
So how does contemporary
Australian café culture fit in with
all of this? Almost seven centuries
later, has much really changed?
While we may not pay a penny to
enter these fine establishments,
not subject others to outbursts
of song or poetry recitals, many
things have stood the test of time.

We still gossip and chat and read
and write. We eat and we drink.
We gather around mugs of frothy
coffee and pots of steaming tea. If
anything, the café lures us out of
our homes and encourages us to
engage with friends on common
ground. It is the study room, the
psychologist’s office and the
library all rolled into one.
But despite its role as the social
playground of contemporary
Australia, perhaps we still have
a thing or two to learn from the
past? Why not try and enjoy our
food without having to affirm
its existence on our Instagram
feeds? Why not engage in a little
more conversation with our fellow
human, even though we might
not know them? And how about
we keep our smartphones safely
tucked away without reaching for
them the minute conversation
wanes? Let’s make like the Turkish
(minus the 14th Century dress)
and dust off the old chess board,
engage in some hearty discussion,
or even tell a story or two.
Go on, I dare you!

ORENDA

09

“I think they’ve forgotten me again,”

Public Transport For All

Mi
nd
Th
e
GA
P:

The lack of urgency in the NSW
government’s plan to improve transport
accessibility has raised questions about
deliberate oversight for the sake of
saving money. Rachel Worsley (UTS
Vertigo) investigates.

10

ORENDA

says Pauline David. Her wheelchair is perched
on the edge of the floor. The distance between
platform and train is bridged by a small gap, but just
large enough to trap a wheelchair. The train remains
standing at platform twenty-one at Central station,
and the doors gape open. But nobody comes. Not
until one of her friends steps off the train and seeks
the platform guard’s help to lay a ramp across the
gap.

“They know I was on the train, that’s why they didn’t
move,” says Ms David. But the guard disagrees, and
argues with her. They eventually settled that there
was a call from Fairfield station, and someone forgot
to let him know.
“Miscommunication. That’s not the first time,” says
David as she rolls of the ramp, towards the lifts.
David is wheelchair bound because she has spina
bifida, a spinal cord defect that leaves her unable to
walk. Her biggest pet peeves on public transport are
unhelpful staff and the lack of lifts. The latter forced
her to take a wheelchair accessible taxi just to get
her to the other platform of Fairfield station as the
lifts are currently out of action for two months.
“Frankly, there [have] been quite a few major
oversights from transport planning from this
government and their requirements for Easy Access,”
said Alex Dennis, a disability rights campaigner for
community advocacy group Transport For All NSW.
“It is the government purely ignoring [problems]
based on the financial constraints…we have to take
into account all parties of the community.”
But according to Transport for NSW, the
government body responsible for public transport
infrastructure and services, they were taking the
disabled community into account. The Transport
for NSW Disability Action Plan contains 150
actions for improvement to be carried out over a
five-year period from 2012-2017. This includes
better disability awareness and customer service
training for staff, as well as rolling out a $770
million Transport Access Program over four years
to upgrade stations with modern and accessible
infrastructure such as lifts. But David has questions
where the group’s priorities lie.
“Look at Circular Quay for instance, one of the
busiest stations in Sydney and they have a couple
of lifts that can only fit one wheelchair…where is
the money to upgrade the lifts there?” said David.
Poor planning of accessible services even marred
the NSW Government’s latest transport project, the

Inner West Light Rail extension that opened in late
March. The extension failed to install lifts at busy
stations such as Dulwich Hill and Lewisham, which are
essential for commuters with disabilities or mobility
restrictions nearby. Dennis said these oversights
are particularly embarrassing for the Transport
Minister, Gladys Berejiklian, having “personally
delayed construction of the extension” and failing to
undertake further transport planning that would have
picked up the oversights.
Berejiklian was unavailable for comment, but a
spokesperson for Transport for NSW said that any
new development at these stations is subject to
“evidence-based criteria including the needs and
demographics of customers who use the location…
and the accessibility of other transport interchanges
and facilities.”
For Abdel Karim Hemzeh, however, these criteria seem
at odds with his job as a platform guard at Flemington
Station, a popular stop for Paddy’s Markets. He had to
carry a man in a wheelchair up several flights of stairs
due to a lack of lifts. “I’ve had two hernia operations,”
he said, partly because of the toll it took on him. It
wasn’t until last August that Berejiklian announced
that Flemington station would get new lifts as part of
a major upgrade.
Dennis believes the real issue isn’t a lack of planning
but is to do with cost.
“It costs up to $100 million for a good lift, incuding
redesigning the station to fit the lift in. Again, I can
understand the costs but when it comes to those with
disabilities, public transport can be the only way to
get around. Without having these things put in place,
they can’t actually go out and be proactive in the
community, have a job, basically have a social life,”
he said.
David thinks empathy might be the answer. She
launched a petition on change.org in January
demanding Berejiklian spend a day in a wheelchair
navigating the train network. Within two weeks, the
petition amassed 15 000 signatures and reached 20
000 signatures in April.
“We’re looking at early May [for the Minister to spend
a day in a wheelchair],” said Ms David, “I feel that as
long as she doesn’t understand what it’s like to be
disabled and in a wheelchair, she won’t prioritise
making services better for us.”

ORENDA

11

Too Close To Home

I’ve told myself for the last few days that I was not going to write this
piece. This article has been written countless times over and published
across every media in the world. This piece will not bring joy to anyone
and it will not change anything. And yet I am unable to stop myself. I am
writing this because it is important to me, but I am also writing it for you,
because I know it is important to you too.
We have all been in a state of grief, to some degree, since the news that
flight MH17 had been shot down by rebel missiles over Ukraine. I know
I was filled with disbelief. Particularly after another Malaysian Airlines
flight, MH370, disappeared without a trace merely months ago. Shock
struck again days later when an Air Algerie flight lost all contact after
hitting bad weather and never arrived at its final destination. Meanwhile,
ceasefire or no ceasefire, men, women and children continue to die in the
Middle East after another outbreak of war.
The news is always and has always been switched on in my household,
so I grew up watching it and knowing about current events. I was eight
years old and eating Cocoa Pops before school when I watched planes fly
into the twin towers. At age ten, I was playing with my Christmas presents
as I watched a tsunami flood fourteen Southeast Asian countries, killing
over 230 000 people in its path. And again in 2009, when I was sixteen,
I saw parts of my own country, and those who lived there, burn until
there was nothing but black. Yet when I turned away from the televisions
and counted my blessings, my life continued as normal. My mind flitted
between friends and schoolwork and hobbies. As sad as these events
were, they were not happening to my loved ones or me. I was safe. I was
unaffected. I was detached.
Superseding my shock at what is dominating our news programs today
however, is an overwhelming sense of heartache that I didn’t know I was
capable of feeling. Something over the last few months has changed and
I feel confident in knowing that I am an adult now. Before this I was in an
age of in-between: old enough to know but not necessarily old enough
to feel. Despite my physical age I was not so sure I was an adult yet and I
sure as hell knew I wasn’t ready to be. There is a certainty in me now that
there is no turning back. Once you see something like this, once you know
something- there is no way to un-know it. My mind now flits between the
sorrow of another’s loss and a gratitude for everything I have. There is no
turning off the television and continuing life as normal.

12

ORENDA

“There is no turning off the television
and continuing life as normal.”

Each time the news updates on the current situation of the MH17 crash
site or the horrific scenes of a war-torn Gaza I am punched in the stomach
with something I have no words for. I feel heavy with a sadness I can’t
explain, and helplessness seeps into my core. I grieve for the mother who
lost her children. I am scared for the children of Gaza who cannot find
their mothers. I am angry and I am frustrated as I sit in my comfortable life,
a witness to the tragedies of the World. On my television and computer
screen I see horrors that can be stopped with something as simple as
perspective and a love for humankind. Dead or alive, we are all human.
When we are stripped of our race, our religion and our values we are
naked and the same: just humans trying to survive a war against ourselves.
So even though it may mean very little, I hope those affected by these
tragedies are aware that my heart breaks for them in a very real way. I
cannot even begin to imagine the hell that they are living through. There
would be nothing I could say or do to ever make this better. I just hope
they know that the world grieves with them in whatever way we can. In
times like these it is so easy to lose faith in humanity, but our humanity is
all we have, it’s what unites us and we must remain united.
I can complain about my paycheck. I can judge you on your outfit. I can
want for more but need for nothing. At the end of the day I know it is all
meaningless. I sit back knowing that I am no more important than you or
her or him. Today I know I am adult because I can grieve for something
that has no direct impact on me. And so I should, because to put it simply:
anything that is occurring on this Earth, on this day, is a little too close to
home for me.

Article by Katie Foran (Kite Tales Blog). First published 27/7/2014.

ORENDA

13

EVERYONE ASSUMES THAT I CAME OUT AS A
LESBIAN/BISEXUAL. I DIDN’T.
I’m pansexual. I never came out as pansexual
though, because I never felt the need to be
quiet about who I was and was not attracted
to. What I did feel the need to keep quiet
about though, was the fact that I am not a girl.
Not in the way that everyone who looks at me
assumes I am anyway.
My name is Emma Jericho, and I am nonbinary and genderfluid. That means that I float
somewhere between genders, changing on
the breeze.
The gender binary tells us that a person
is either Male (born with a penis) or Female
(born with a vagina), and that you will stay
that way forever. Incorrect. You don’t need to
fit into either of those categories, and your
gender is not defined by your biological sex.
Your gender isn’t even how you present to the
world. And no one can call you on it.
Socially and culturally, gender and sex are
often conflated. However, anatomically, we
have no pre-disposition to like pink over blue.
To skirts over pants. To men over women.
For penis to mean male and vagina to mean
female, and for your bits to define how you
behave.
I’d never been very good at being a girl by
society’s standards. I wasn’t a great boy either.
This caused me a great deal of stress. What if
I was only a girl because I’d been born with
a vagina and everyone had told me I was a
girl. If you’ve been told a universal truth your
whole life, you accept it as just something
that is and it doesn’t even cross your mind

14

to question it. When I realised that this may
not be a universal truth, I started to question
how society defines gender, and how that
applied to me, how I’d always felt outside of
the gender that had been offered to me, and I
realised that I didn’t have to blindly endure it.
I could tell people that I wasn’t a girl. I
discovered that I wasn’t alone. There were
gender fluid people, non binary people,
agender people, and queer people abound!
There were communities for me! There were
spaces for me! There were other people who
felt like me! I wasn’t alone and struggling to
fit into my given category any more. I decided
to change my category, instead of changing
myself to fit where I’d been put.
We encourage people, especially young
people, to be themselves and discover
themselves. However, when this identity
is something other than cishet [cisgender/
hetrosexual], problems arise. A lot of people
talk about ‘transtrending’ - where an individual
pretends to be queer to fit in with a group of
queer peers, because apparently being a part
of a group that is regularly murdered for not
being quiet about who they are is cool now. I
worried that I was doing that for a long time.
That I was so desperate to be different and
discover my identity that I would try on any
label that I felt sounded ~cool. But gender is
a fluid thing. Why box yourself up forever? If I
feel like a girl today, I am a girl today. If I feel
like a boy tomorrow, I am a boy tomorrow. And
I don’t need a cishet person to be okay with
it, because it’s not about them. It’s about me.
I’m here. I’m queer.

“ I DECIDED TO CHANGE MY CATEGORY
INSTEAD OF CHANGING MYSELF TO FIT WHERE I’D BEEN PUT

ORENDA

NOT QUEER AS IN “ W E I R D ”
QUEER AS IN “F*C K Y O U ”
With the growing trend of being socially
aware and promoting social justice, people
are raising awareness about cissexism and
transphobia, about binarist attitudes and
how these influence real people. Which is
wonderful. I am all about being aware of the
social systems that are in place in the world
we live in and how they affect everyone, for
better or for worse. This raises the problem
though, that people are wanting to be socially
aware so that they look modern and cool,
making continued oppression that they don’t
suffer about them.
When I came out, the most common reactions
I experienced were questions along the
lines of ‘Will you be offended if I use female
pronouns for you?’ which translates to ‘I am
more concerned about your gender making
our interactions harder than about how it will
impact your safety.’ ‘Can I use ‘it’ to refer to
you?’ translates to ‘You can be the gender I
give you or I won’t refer to you as human.’
Finally, in the words of Matt Fraction “Your
empathy smacks you in the face and you feel
sick for a second and then you stop making
it about you and live your life as a positive
change agent for your fellow humans.”
It’s not about you. It’s about me. It’s about all
queer and non-binary folk. We’re here. We’re
queer.

WORDS BY EMMA JER I C H O

ORENDA

15

I build
my life
through
actions
with love as my

fou n d a ti o n .

16

ORENDA

Do

ORENDA

17

Ten Tips
18

Decorating small, rented spaces

Article by Kara (A Beautiful Mess)
I moved into my first non-dorm apartment about nine months ago. I moved into a
400-square-foot (37 square metre) studio apartment with my best friend. A few
months later we added a cat, so needless to say our little home can get crowded!
I love a comfortable and happy place to come home to, so taking full of advantage
of our small space was a huge priority for me. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m happy to say we found some great
solutions and I am especially happy I can share them with you!

ORENDA

Give everyday items a home

Go Vertical

This tip is number one, because itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s vital for staying
sane in a small place. Our front entryway has a long
table where we keep three metal baskets. One
is where I keep my purse, random bits of mail, or
random items of mine. My roommate has her own,
and the third is for scarves, hats, and whatever else
makes it way in there. When we come in the door
we distribute our belongs into the baskets, hang up
our jacket, and put our shoes in a row by the front
door. This system keeps our apartment from being
overrun by these items!

Taking advantage of all your space is key, and that
includes going up! Since our place is so small, we
went with bunk beds. We keep the bedding simple
and try to resist hanging items from the bed. You
can also choose tall pieces of furniture and other
high wall hooks to store items.

Use mirrors to add depth

Keep wall art looking airy
and light by hanging with
binder clips

Mirrors are an excellent tool for elongating and
brightening up spaces. The yellow mirror above my
desk makes the art wall more dynamic and opens
up the space.

Frames can be a heavy (and expensive!) accessory
for artwork. I chose to hang my Deb Carlos print
with inexpensive binder clips and nails. I also used
small binder clips to hang up an embroidered piece
of fabric. Find hanging solutions that donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t clutter
your space and that fit your budget.
ORENDA

19

Paint your furniture

Stay organized & hide it

Painting the walls in our place isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t an option, but
going bold with bright furniture is! I chose a bright,
salmon pink to liven up a thrift store desk. Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be
afraid to choose a bold color that you love, because
you can always repaint the item in a few years (or
upgrade to a new item!) to suit a new space or your
evolving taste.

This is absolutely vital for keeping your space tidy
and pretty. I store all my organized art supplies in
bins underneath the bunk bed. I can pull the bins
out when I need them, and the little pieces are out
of sight for the rest of the time!

20

ORENDA

Use your stuff to decorate
You have great stuff, and you have a lot of stuff. So
use that stuff to decorate! I stacked our books on
the floor next to our chair, instead of adding a bulky
bookcase. If you have great jewelry, an interesting
collection or a basketful of cute cameras, double up
your organization with a decorative edge.

Go with lightweight tables
and chairs
This makes entertaining guests a lot easier!
Lightweight chairs are easy to move and add to,
plus they keep our kitchen vignette from being too
cluttered. Being able to rearrange for more people
quickly and easily is key in a small space.

Use curtains to cover up
unsightliness
If you have any exposed shelving, this tip is perfect
for you! I created a little curtain with a vintage
pillowcase, some buttons, and an inexpensive minicurtain rod. We hide our ugly kitchen gadgets behind
here. Plus it adds some color!

Use a coordinating rug to
create interest in the center
of the room
Since we donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have a lot of options to leave wall
spaces empty, our wall space is pretty packed. To
keep the center of the room from looking too sparse
and boring, we added a small and coordinating rug! I
love the dimension it adds. This is also a great option
if you are stuck with ho-hum carpet and cannot
change it since you are renting.
ORENDA

21

Album Review:

Morning Runner
Wilderness is Paradise Now
Article by Cal Behrendt
Morning Runner, the Reading-based group,
are not one many think of when it comes
to naming mainstream bands that base a
large amount of their work on the piano.
While bands like Keane and Coldplay spring
to mind, this band went largely unnoticed
in mainstream culture, only remaining
in the realm of pop culture due to the
amazing success of the English sitcom The
Inbetweeners. However, Morning Runner’s
debut, Wilderness Is Paradise Now, remains
to be an excellent variety of tunes and
themes that left the door wide open for
continued excellence in regards to future
albums, but due to commercial pressure,
remains an unrealized dream for fans.
The album opens with an attempt at the
classic “Epic Rock Song” in It’s Not Like
Everyone’s My Friend. Going loud from the
get go, the band attempts to use dynamics
effectively while displaying the full talents
of Chris Wheatcroft on piano and the lyrical
talents of Matthew Greener. After this solid
opening for a track, it is built on with a much
rockier and consistent sound in Have A
Good Time. Here Greener’s work on guitar is
the parading point of the song, with the riffs
being underplayed throughout providing a
sound reminiscent of some of The Wombats’
earlier work. This song then melds into the
most recognizable song by Morning Runner
in Gone Up In Flames, famously used as the
theme song to The Inbetweeners. Here the
band fuses a steady guitar riff with a heavy
rock drum beat and a small piano riff to
meld into a foot-tapping song that is made
all the more enjoyable by Greener’s quick
talking lyrical style to paint a portrait of
desperation which is hard not to enjoy.
We then begin to see a substantial change
22

ORENDA

in the tone of the album, beginning with
Burning Bridges, which begins softly, with
Greener repeating “It’s Not Heaven Without
You.” As the band slowly builds up, both the
pace of the song but also the layers of the
instruments until all members are playing
loud and frantically. Following on from
this is Hold Your Breath, which shows the
departure from the first half of the album by
playing in a manner different than we have
heard. Through Ali Clewer’s soft jazz style
drum beat and Wheatcroft’s piano scales
and riffs, Hold paints a relaxing picture of a
Sunday drive along a windy road. This song
slowly melds into the next in Oceans, which
is another relaxing song, but instead of the
drumming, it relies on Greener’s drawn out
lyrical pleas to “Turn Back The Clocks”. Once
again, Wheatcroft and the piano is a big
player in the song as his riff provides for a
logical progression in Greener’s lyrics.
The Great Escape attempts the very thing it
states in the title of the song by trying to
harness the earlier themes of the album and
escape back to that after the softer break in
the middle of the album. By working off Tom
Derrett’s bass riff and Greener’s guitar work,
the song is constructed in a manner that
challenges dynamics, much like the opening
track. This theme is continued in Be All You
Want Me To Be, a song which was referenced
by Chris Martin of Coldplay as being “better
than all of our songs” in regards to the early
writing of X&Y, which inspired them to
write several new songs. Here we can see
why, as the music slowly builds not only in
verses, but as a complete song, beginning
with some intensity, but building until it is
released halfway through, before restarting
to build it up again. Again it is Wheatcroft on
piano that takes control of the song, with his
riffs leading the sections where intensity is

built. This continues in the next song, Punching
Walls, which builds on Wheatcroft’s riffs which
is rather upbeat, to add Clewer with an upbeat
drum rhythm. Here Derrett takes control with
his bass riffs which provide a startling contrast
to the other instruments, but in a positive way,
as Derrett’s riff is what makes you tap your foot
in enjoyment while Greener’s lyric work is one
that is easy to pick up and sing along to.
As we enter the tail of the album, we begin to
feel like ordering has been muddled a bit, as a
song like Work would fit much better in the tone
of the album more towards the front end, rather
than squeezed between two softer songs. Here
Clewer works magic on the drums to back up
Greener’s lyrical work while Wheatcroft takes
full control in the chorus with the piano leading
alongside the lyrics to prepare the listener
for the final track. Here we see a great closing
track not only to the album, but also ironically
a career, as Best For You ends on a softer note
reminiscent of the songs in the middle of the
album. As Greener croons that “Only the best
for you is enough for me” the drum takes a
simple turn and makes it relaxing, while we hear
the addition of string instruments to further the
romantic intentions of Greener’s lyrics.
As the album closes, it leaves you with a distinct
feeling. One on hand, you’re left wanting more,
but knowing that there cannot be more, as the
band disbanded in 2007 due to commercial
pressure. But on the other hand, you have a
strong one-off album that can never be let
down by future work like many bands have
seemingly forgotten in recent memory (Looking
at you, Weezer). All in all, Wilderness is Paradise
Now is a fantastic debut album and one that I
continually return to as a strong one-off album.
While the work here cannot be improved on, at
least it was here in the first place.
Wilderness Is Paradise Now can be found on
Amazon and Spotify.

Preheat oven to 180Â°C. Grease four Â˝ cup
(125ml capacity) ceramic ramekins and
arrange on a baking tray.
Melt chocolate in a heatproof bowl over
a saucepan of simmering water. Stir until
smooth. Remove and allow to cool.
Place butter, eggs, flour and sugar in a food
processor and process until smooth. Slowly
add the cooled melted chocolate and mix
until combined.
Carefully spoon 1/3 cup of mixture into
each ramekin and bake for 15 - 16 minutes
or until cooked on the outside. Stand for 5
minutes in ramekins.
For the coulis, combine sugar and water in a
medium saucepan, stirring over a mediumlow heat until sugar dissolves. Add berries
and cook, stirring for 2 minutes. Remove
from heat and push mixture through a fine
sieve. Transfer to a serving jug.
To serve, gently invert warm fondants onto
serving plates. Garnish with cream, berries,
a drizzle of coulis and a dusting of icing
sugar.

ORENDA

27

ROOKIES GUIDE

Networking
If you want a job you’ve got to work it - ‘it’ being your stunning,
accessible and ultimately lovely personality. Resident people-person
Larissa Bricis (UTS Vertigo) shares her tips for turning heads.
UNLESS YOU’RE ONE OF THOSE PEOPLE
claiming that they study for the education
- “Oh, I just love to learn!” (get out pls) you need your degree to turn into a job,
right? The theories you’re learning will
earn you a glorified piece of paper, but
it’s networking that will really set you
apart from the other hopefuls. If you’re
a little bit in the dark, networking is the
totes profesh art of building industry
relationships with people who can help
you achieve your career goals. Here’s
our Rookie’s Guide to getting schmoozy.

Lean On Me

Contacts don’t have to be Richard
Branson or Clive Palmer (lel) in order
to be useful. Start at the bottom: talk
to your friends and family, and their
acquaintances. Potential contacts are
everywhere, just waiting to share their
brilliance with you. As Bill Nye said,
“everyone you meet knows something
you don’t.” There’s always the Seven
Degrees of Separation theory, which
suggests that a famous person (or, in
this case, an industry heavyweight) is
separable from you by seven contacts
or less. Exploiting this will propel you
much further than you might imagine.
I’m connected to Deborah Mailman
by two degrees and I once talked to
Dr. Harry Cooper for twenty minutes
#cashincheques.

28

ORENDA

Don’t Be A Dick

Once you’ve made some connections,
keep in contact with them. And that
doesn’t mean the insincere ‘Happy
Birthday!’ post on Facebook. Striking
up a genuine relationship with your
contacts will increase the chances that
they’ll seriously consider you for that
job or internship when the time comes.
For extra brownie points, establish some
topics of interest that aren’t job-related,
such as pasta shape preference or an
affinity for candle-making.

Befriend a Polar Bear

‘Cause you’re gonna need some A-class
ice breakers. The best ice breakers are
light-hearted, humorous, steer clear
of controversy and focus attention on
others within the conversation. If you’re
lost for inspiration, try talking about
yourself in the third person, divulging
your irrational fear about the secret
lives of spiders or initiate a lively round
of ‘I Never’, because none of those could
possibly backfire, right?

DON’T FEEL LIKE “SAVING THE CHILDREN” ON YOUR WAY TO CLASS? ACTUALLY ALREADY DONATE

The Roadtest: Avoiding

Mission: Find the perfect way to avoid those annoying street charity fundraisers who try to con you
out of your food beer money. Aside from the normal “I’m 17” excuse, or grabbing your phone out of
your bag faster than the speed of light, I thought I’d roadtest some more creative methods of getting
to uni charity-free.

Confusion

The Why Method

This tactic requires you to be on the ball. As
the fundraiser approaches you with their
clipboard, scream something completely
random such as “I like burgers” or “I’m a
pirate”. You may not even like burgers and
being a pirate is completely unfeasible in this
day and age, but they don’t know that. Your
statement will baffle them and this hesitation
is key to your escape.

This one is pretty easy. After every sentence
or statement the charity fundraiser makes,
ask “why”. For example:
Fundraiser: “I’m trying to raise money for
starving children, could you give me a
minute?”
Me: “Why?”
F: “Because the cause is important.”
M: “Why?”
F: “Because children are starving.”
M: “Why?”
You get the point. After a while, they’ll get
fed up or won’t be able to answer your stupid
questions.

EFFECTIVENESS: 4/5

A charity fundraiser hounded me
on my way to class. I was in a rush. She really
wanted to talk to me. You see the dilemma. So
having prepared a few things to shout, I went
with a positive comment. She opened her
mouth, I cut her off saying, “I like your hat.”
She wasn’t wearing one. She didn’t realise
this until after I had walked away and she had
patted her head like a fool.

30

ORENDA

EFFECTIVENESS: 2/5

For me this was the hardest as it
requires you to keep a straight face and
basically be a bit of a bitch. I can’t do the first
one. I’m a terrible liar. I laugh. I blush. You
get the drift. And as soon as the fundraiser
realised “why” was all he was going to get out
of me, I found it harder to keep it up. Plus I
felt like the biggest bitch ever, not taking his
charity seriously. Deep down I was, but I had
uni work to do and had to pretend not to care.
So unless you’re Cruella de Vil or have a heart
made of stone, this tactic will not work out
for you.

READY DONATE TO OTHER CHARITIES? SAGE FITZPATRICK (UTS VERTIGO) MIGHT BE ABLE TO HELP.

iding Charity Fundraisers
The Creepy Smile

The Human Shield

Most charity fundraisers throughout the day
will have been shouted at, ignored or spoken
to like they’re basically a piece of crap on the
floor. So by making eye contact and putting
on your creepiest smile you will unsettle
them – think the Cheshire Cat from Alice in
Wonderland. They’ll immediately back away,
with thoughts of you creeping into their
apartment at night and murdering their entire
family. They will use all their tactics to try and
ignore you.

You’re happily strolling down the road and
you spot a ‘chugger’ (charity mugger). Sweat
forms on your head, your breath hitches and
your heartbeat quickens. But alas, you spot a
nice looking lady. She looks sweet, a little bit
like your nan – she even has a cardigan with
a puppy on it. Perfect. All you need to do is
walk next to this person while approaching
the dreaded fundraisers: close enough that
you are shielded, but not close enough to
warrant a restraining order or be mistaken for
this individual’s friend. Or worse, partner.

EFFECTIVENESS: 4/5

Although slightly embarrassing, this
tactic works surprisingly well. However it is
only for those who don’t mind making a tit of
themselves in public. I put on my creepiest
smile. Eyes wide, with an almost hypnotic,
trance-like edge to my stare, a big smile,
all teeth showing and no signs of budging.
As soon as the poor guy made eye contact
with me, I saw him tense up a little. I saw in
his eyes that he was judging my sanity and
was debating whether to stop me or call a
mental institution. He chose neither and with
an awkward smile directed his attention to
another unfortunate person.

EFFECTIVENESS: 5/5

This works for me and is fail safe most of the
time. Fundraisers are looking for nice people;
they’re generally more generous and willing
to give to charity. But if everyone around
you looks like they would punch you in the
face, then peer shielding is needed. And if
worst comes to worse, push your best friend
towards them. They’ll forgive you, eventually.

Result: I have come to the conclusion that avoiding charity fundraisers is not as hard as I once
thought. I learnt you have to think outside the box when it comes to dodging tactics - the crazier the
better. as long as you don’t get arrested, and avoid having to sign all your wages away, then job done.
ORENDA

EAT WITH
YOUR EYES
Crack open
a drink with
this bottle
opener and
celebrate
with
friends

These
magnetic spice
containers stick
to the fridge for
easy storage

p your
ith

ing
s

Protect the
bench
with this
geometric
trivet

This
whimsical
tea towel is
ORENDA
neutral enough
to go with any
colour scheme

33

Make Your Own

Terrarium

A terrarium is a mini garden kept inside a glass
container. Within the glass container small
plants grow with little maintenance due
to the terrarium producing itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s own
climate. Terrariums add so much
decoration to any desk, bedside
table or bookshelf, and also
may help you to improve
your green thumb!

34

ORENDA

step one:
Gather your materials
1
one.

two.

Gather all the tools you will need, they
are as follows:
- glass containers
- soil
- moss
- a small variety of small plants
- either rocks/pebbles/wood chips
- decoration for your terrarium, i.e
toadstool, small fairy figurines etc.

Make sure you have your glass
containers ready to go. You can buy
any of the containers shown in this
tutorial at most dollar stores. You can
buy some really beautiful glass jars for
really cheap at these places.

three.

four.

Collect some plants or shrubs you
would like to collect for your terrarium.
I clipped off some small fern branches
from my backyard.

Collect some moss, and place in a
container for you to carry around whilst
gathering your other ingredients. You
can buy moss from gardening stores,
or alternatively you can go to your
nearest forest or wooded area and Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m
positive you will find moss. I was lucky
enough to have a few locations in my
backyard that grows moss which I have
been eyeing off for the past
couple of months.

Collect some soil, and add to your
collection. As you can see I have
collected a few shrubs.

FYI: please be careful when collecting these items and try to cause the least amount of damage.
These ingredients you are collecting are homes for a lot of insects, bugs and lizards etc,
ORENDA
so take care in not digging up more than you need to.

35

step two:
be prepared to make a mess!

five.

six.

To start creating your terrarium, you
must first have a bottom layer of either
pebbles, stones, or in my case, wood
chips. This step is to properly ensure
your terrarium will have drainage.
A terrarium does not have drainage
holes, so you must supply a drainage
layer to prevent damage to plant roots.

Add your soil! My soil was so dry, so I
added some water to help it sit better
in the container.

seven.
Create small holes with your fingers
and plant your small plants and tightly
pat the soil around them into place.

36

ORENDA

eight.
Add a layer of moss around the plants.

step three:
decorate your terrarium!

nine.

ten.

I bought these little figurines for
$2 each tube from Kmart. Initially I
wanted to decorate my terrariums
with fairies and toadstool and cute
little deer, however I could not find any
figurines anywhere! Which led to this...
Dinosaurs will do.

I picked out my favourite little guys
and assembled my army made of
dinosaurs, insects and moose.

eleven.
My little frog and I also ended up adding
a cheap succulent from Bunnings,
because succulents are perfect.

twelve.
Triceratops + succulent

ORENDA

37

step four:
Maintenance
LIGHT
A newly planted terrarium should be placed in shade for about a week. After
the week is up, adjust light according to the requirements of the plants. Most
terrariums do better in filtered light, and not direct sunlight.
TOO MUCH SUN: Leaves wilt and develop burned spots.
TOO LITTLE LIGHT: Plants develop tall, thin stems that are weak and unable
to hold up leaves. Leaves are pale and fragile. Increase amount of light slowly.

WATER
OPEN TERRARIUM : For plants that like moist soil, the top earth should feel
barely moist before you add water. For cacti and succulents, touch below the
surface layer. Lower soil should be only slightly damp.
CLOSED TERRARIU M : These should rarely if ever need water due to the
condensation the plants will produce.
TOO DRY: Leaves wilt and look pale. Moss becomes brown or faded. Add a little
water and mist leaves.
TOO MUCH WATER : Excessive water encourages the growth of molds and
causes plant decay.
As plants grow, prune back the leaves to prevent over crowding.